Bradley Toshio Katsuyama (born 1978) is a Canadian financial services executive. He is the CEO and co-founder of the IEX, the Investors Exchange. He left RBC in 2012 to co-found IEX under the premise that it would be a fairer stock

trading venue An exchange, bourse (), trading exchange or trading venue is an organized market where (especially) tradable securities, commodities, foreign exchange, futures, and options contracts are bought and sold. History 12th century: Brokers on t ...

than other exchanges. Through his work with IEX, Katsuyama is featured in ''

Flash Boys ''Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt'' is a book by the American writer Michael Lewis, published by W. W. Norton & Company on March 31, 2014. The book is a non-fiction investigation into the phenomenon of high-frequency trading (HFT) in the US fi ...

'', a 2014 non-fiction book by

Michael Lewis Michael Monroe Lewis (born October 15, 1960) Gale Biography In Context. is an American author and financial journalist. He has also been a contributing editor to ''Vanity Fair'' since 2009, writing mostly on business, finance, and economics. He ...

about high-frequency trading (HFT) in the

financial market A financial market is a market in which people trade financial securities and derivatives at low transaction costs. Some of the securities include stocks and bonds, raw materials and precious metals, which are known in the financial market ...

Early life and education

Born in 1978, Katsuyama is a native of

Markham Markham may refer to: It may also refer to brand of of clothing which originates from South Africa which saw it's establishment in 1873. Biology * Markham's storm-petrel (''Oceanodroma markhami''), a seabird species found in Chile and Colombia * ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

, Canada. He is a graduate of

Wilfrid Laurier University Wilfrid Laurier University (commonly referred to as WLU or simply Laurier) is a public university in Ontario, Canada, with campuses in Waterloo, Brantford and Milton. The newer Brantford and Milton campuses are not considered satellite campuses ...

Waterloo, Ontario Waterloo is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is one of three cities in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo (formerly Waterloo County). Waterloo is situated about west-southwest of Toronto. Due to the close proximity of the ci ...

, where he attended Lazaridis School of Business and Economics.

Career

RBC and pre-IEX career

Before founding IEX, Katsuyama worked for many years at the Royal Bank of Canada. He held management roles in US cash equity trading, hedge fund coverage and US technology trading. Later he became the global head of electronic sales and trading, overseeing electronic sales,

electronic trading In finance, an electronic trading platform also known as an online trading platform, is a computer software program that can be used to place orders for financial products over a network with a financial intermediary. Various financial products c ...

, algorithmic trading, market structure strategy, client implementation and product management.

HFT problems, discovery and response

While at RBC, he noticed that placing a single large order that can be fulfilled only through many different

stock exchanges A stock exchange, securities exchange, or bourse is an exchange where stockbrokers and traders can buy and sell securities, such as shares of stock, bonds and other financial instruments. Stock exchanges may also provide facilities for the ...

was being taken advantage of by stock scalpers. Scalpers, noticing the order would not be able to be fulfilled by one single exchange, would instead buy the securities on the other exchanges, so that by the time the rest of the large order arrived to those exchanges the scalpers could sell the securities at a higher price. All these events would happen in milliseconds not perceivable to humans but perceivable to computers. Katsuyama led a team that implemented

THOR Thor (; from non, Þórr ) is a prominent god in Germanic paganism. In Norse mythology, he is a hammer-wielding god associated with lightning, thunder, storms, sacred groves and trees, strength, the protection of humankind, hallowing, an ...

, a securities' order-management system where large orders are split into many different sub-orders with each sub-order arriving at the same time to all the exchanges through the use of intentional delays.

Post-RBC and IEX founding

Katsuyama left RBC in 2012 to start what he considered to be a fairer stock trading venue, the Investors Exchange IEX. IEX is an emerging stock exchange, organized as an

alternative trading system Alternative trading system (ATS) is a US and Canadian regulatory term for a non-exchange trading venue that matches buyers and sellers to find counterparties for transactions. Alternative trading systems are typically regulated as broker-dealers r ...

, also known as a

dark pool In finance, a dark pool (also black pool) is a private forum (alternative trading system or ATS) for trading securities, derivatives, and other financial instruments. William O'Brien, at the time president of competing business

BATS Global Markets Bats Global Markets is a global stock exchange operator based in Lenexa, Kansas, with additional offices in London, New York, Chicago, and Singapore. Bats was founded in June 2005, became operator of a licensed U.S. stock exchange in 2008 and ...

, during a debate on CNBC, asserted in April 2014 the IEX was trying to build its business by generating 'fear', 'mistrust' and 'accusations'. Katsuyama and his work at IEX is featured in ''

'', a 2014 non-fiction book by financial writer

about high-frequency trading (HFT) in the

s. Lewis praised IEX as an appropriate and beneficial response to HFT abuses. Since the publishing of ''Flash Boys'' and the opening of IEX, several U.S. authorities have confirmed they are looking into certain practices used by high-frequency traders. The

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...

, the

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against market ...

, the

U.S. Justice Department The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United States ...

and the Attorney General of New York State all have investigations underway.

IEX approvals

The SEC approved the IEX to be an official exchange on June 17, 2016, with Katsuyama remaining IEX CEO. On October 24, 2017, IEX Group Inc. received regulatory approval from the SEC to list companies. IEX said it would begin listings in early 2018, with a focus on getting companies to switch over from other stock exchanges, by undercutting listing fees of rivals. Katsuyama remains chairman of the IEX board.

Personal life

Katsuyama lives in New York with his wife Ashley and his two sons, Brandon and Rylan.

References

External links

Profile at IEX
{{DEFAULTSORT:Katsuyama, Brad Canadian businesspeople Living people Royal Bank of Canada people 1978 births Wilfrid Laurier University alumni People from Markham, Ontario